Taxes, tax returns and more..

Please stay with me, this may get winded.

I am going to be shooting player and team photos for a local youth football organization. This will be my first time getting paid for my photos. I have a smugmug account setup and have sold a few prints already on there. The nice thing is that smugmug collects sales tax and pays sales tax to my state for me. My concern is that providing parents only a link to my smugmug site may not be the best way to get the most sales. My guess would be that providing some basic packages to purchase up front, and then additional options via the smugmug site later might produce the most sales. That being said, I know that I will need to collect sales tax on the upfront sales.

I don't plan on quitting my day job anytime soon, so I don't know what info is needed when filing a tax return in the spring. I do know that having all the info set and in place now will make things easier later down the road. At what point do I full out report it as a business vs additional income that isn't reported on a w2 form? My short term goal is to break even on my smugmug hosting, business cards, and Lightroom Purchase. If I can go above and beyond that it would be awesome.

Re: Taxes, tax returns and more..

Why not you consult with a lawyer that will help you more in filling all that returns and all legal that you need for the tax purpose without having an trouble.Because he know better that how to deal with that.

Re: Taxes, tax returns and more..

It has been a while, but as we are getting into tax season, here are some viewpoints from an entrepreneur. Get Quickbooks. File a DBA according to your state regs. Also get a state property tax license. This for packages not marketed through smugmug. If you do any contract work, you will receive a 1099 form. Otherwise you are doing a cash business, no inventory, etc. You can depreciate your equipment if extensive, otherwise it can be a full write-off for the year. Turbotax can walk you through the process.

If this business develops, consider an LLC. You can still file under your individual tax form, but you are protected as a corporation.

As to marketing, you can hire a college kid from a local college to set up your web site, set up links where clients can review their digital samples, order the prints, pay, etc and not involve a third-party provider up front. The order can be sent to the provider you set up, but the client will never see it. Your brochure should have your web site, etc all on it.

Re: Taxes, tax returns and more..

I personally wouldn't conduct business without a license. The second I started collecting money I didn't donate I did. I had it all setup through a CPA who advised on everything. (I believe I'm a sole proprietorship)

If you are shooting sport portraits I highly advise to do all sales up front. Meaning you get paid before a camera click. It has been my experience that people who just want to buy portraits off my website never do. I refuse to work on, and offer portraits for non-paying people who might have good intentions. However, there is a high percentage that does forget it's portrait day. I will take their portraits and collect before pictures are ordered.l There's quite a large percentage in my sales I do that for. Getting the square has been invaluable too.

All the sales that have sales tax included I deposit separately from non-sales tax revenue. (like smugmug and freelance work)

Also I highly recommend Millers Lab for sport portraits. They have software to create and order portrait packages. I pay a little more and have them package everything for me. That service is worth it's weight in gold especially when the accounts get big or I do a drop ship.

Re: Taxes, tax returns and more..

Well this is good information about Tax for the every business.
My question is that if i use my own name for my Business Registration and registered my business in a legal way with my own name then how much tax i have to pay the Gvt.
Because in my thoughts i think i have to pay some extra charges to the Gvt against my own name shop.
But i want to remove this difficulty.
Please tell me if anybody now about that !!!
Thanks and Take Care :-)